It’s a fact: Collection laws are set up to protect consumers. But as a business, you have to protect yourself. Having a strong financial policy can make all the difference should one of your consumers break the terms of your contract, find themselves past-due, or even require collection activity.

However, if you want to reinforce your financial policy, it’s important to ensure your policy aligns with current laws. Adherence to federal and state laws is monitored closely by regulators, consumers, and their attorneys. Any gaps in your financial policy could result in your business being unable to reinforce it or, worst case scenario, become the target of a lawsuit.

Dentist Collect (IC System) is here to help. Our infographic 9 Tips to Building a Strong Financial Policy offers a few simple pointers your office can follow to develop a strong financial policy. Review this with your staff and determine if your office is using these best practices, and if not, how you can ensure your business is protected.

The holidays can be stressful and crazily busy. It’s so busy that surviving the holiday season requires an almost endless list of lists. You have shopping lists of who to buy for, where you’re going to do your shopping, what food you’re going to serve, what you’re going to bring to this or that party, and what groceries you need. You have To Do lists of what needs to be tidied up before guests arrive, errands you have to run, and appointments you can’t miss. And that’s just your personal life. Throw a busy dental office environment into this mix and sometimes the holidays feel like utter chaos.

It’s easy to forget things around the dental office in this atmosphere, easy to let things pile up or set them aside. More than one of IC System’s dental clients has mentioned being “just too busy” to deal with their past-due dental accounts during the period between October and December. But now is perhaps the most important time of all to make sure your past-due dental accounts are getting placed with a collection agency sooner.

In our experience, dental debts are most collectable within the first 90 days of delinquency. After the first 90 days, our chances of recovering the balance decrease dramatically. Even more after 120 days.

So let’s say there’s a new past-due dental account that just came across your desk. It’s 30 days past-due. Normally, you might make a few calls on it, send a letter or two, and then send it to a collection agency, like IC System. But now the holidays are coming. You’ve got a few days off here and there. End-of-year workloads begin to stack up. And let’s face reality—your productivity isn’t what it should be, because you’re spending an eyebrow-raising amount of your workday daydreaming about presents and food. Hey, we all do it.

By the time mid-November rolls around, you meant to call on that past-due dental account but got caught up in the holiday hoopla instead. It happens. But if you’re not submitting your past-due dental accounts by this time, chances are you won’t get your accounts submitted within the ideal 90-day delinquency period. At this point, the one or two calls you’re able to make aren’t going to produce much. After all, you don’t have all day to make collection calls, and your past-due customers have busy holiday schedules too. And so, already your chances of recovering the dental debt are decreasing more and more.

All the more reason to get past-due dental accounts to IC System now. If we start collecting on your delinquent inventory today, we can make payment arrangements before the busy (and expensive!) holiday season arrives. We can negotiate plans before your consumers begin their holiday shopping and may get accounts paid off before the holidays, or certainly just after the holidays when people start receiving their tax refunds—we coordinate smaller payments during the holiday season, and schedule a payoff for when refunds are received. Better yet, it’s one less item you have to think about this holiday season.

Here’s the thing: It’s already hard enough to collect past-due dental accounts. Why make it harder by waiting? Make it easier on yourself and your office. Get the debts to a collection agency early. Check that box off your To Do list. Clear the pile on your desk. Get your boss’ email titled “What’s going on with our accounts receivables?” out of your inbox.

Do this, and we’ll be able to collect better for you, and you’ll be able to concentrate on what’s important this holiday season.
– See more at: dental debts holiday hoopla PDF

Dental office websites often have financial sections that state, “You are responsible for knowing your insurance benefits, but we will help you file claims” or, “We’re happy to help you with your claims, but you are responsible for knowing your plan details.”

When these were written, they were no doubt intended in a friendly but firm way, but in our insurance-dominated landscape, it could easily be perceived as a red flag to the patient. What the patient really needs to read is “we’re here to help you with your benefits.”

How did we get from insisting that patients know their plans to becoming mini-insurance databases? Simple: The market has pushed us in that direction. The National Association of Dental Plans and Delta Dental of Pennsylvania report 78 percent* of the plans sold are PPO plans. Let’s put it another way—individual and group purchasers of plans select plans that offer a preferred provider network in an effort to reduce expenses. These networks are swelling with providers now—a very different scenario from 10 or even five years ago.

This has created an opportunity for offices that are willing to take on the burden of discovering and tracking patient benefits. Is your insurance administrator collecting new patient benefit information on the new patient call? I hope so—if you wait to collect the information, you and the patient may be surprised at how the plan works in your office. Patients have already been primed by medical offices to hand over their insurance information rather robotically. Dental offices should also be collecting it but with much more of a customer service bent.

The patient relies on us to help decipher his or her benefits. Is that fair to the dental office? Definitely not. But is it the new business reality? Absolutely. Let’s look at it from a different perspective. Let’s say you are scheduled to have an inpatient surgery on your foot. Your surgeon’s office will likely preauthorize the procedure for you. But what would you do if the office asked you to find out what the surgery would cost and if there are any plan exclusions? Is there a limit to how much anesthesia you can have? What hospital can they use? What material can they use during the surgery? Is there a missing toe clause? You get the idea!

Most of us wouldn’t know the first question to ask or even what department of the insurance company to call. We look to the surgeon’s administrator to know his or her way around the insurance maze. It’s a stretch to expect our patients to know enough to ask about alternate benefits such as amalgam-priced payments for composite fillings or partial denture payments for implant placements. For laughs, you could ask your neighbor to read that sentence and explain it back to you. It’s a rare patient that could do this. Frequency limitations for bitewings and crown placements regularly confuse providers, so it’s an easy assumption that patients wouldn’t even think to ask about it. The only time a patient is aware of a frequency limitation is because they have run into it at another office and ended up with unexpected out-of-pocket expense.

This absolutely adds work to your already-stressed administrative team, but here’s what I tell my audiences: If you’re not helping them with their insurance, they’ll find an office that will. That’s hard to hear for a healthcare provider. We’re supposed to be blessed with the sanctity of the patient-doctor relationship. Ask your medical colleagues how well that relationship is working for them. American physicians’ private practice is highly influenced by the benefits market. I’m not suggesting we let insurance drive our decisions regarding patient care but that we realize how important it is to the patient that his or her benefits are understood.

I want your office to be the one that tells patients they’ll help with the language. Think of your team as translators of a foreign language for your patients. In essence, their dental benefits read like Latin to them. Your administrators are similar to a dental Rosetta Stone—provide your patients with the translation and a smile along with an offer to help rather than an admonishment that they should know their benefits.

We have to start communicating better with patients. To reach new ones. To keep existing ones. To improve the patient experience and ultimately the relationship between a patient and a provider.

Patients want more personalized care and communication – whether it’s sent to their mobile, laptop or mailbox.

Practices know it, but 90% admit they don’t have the expertise to do it right.

First, it’s important to define ‘communications’. POS Professional Office Services defines patient communications as every piece of communication (printed, digital, verbal and novnverbal) that a patient has with a practice and a provider.

So now that we have a handle on what we mean by patient communications, where is a logical place to start? Let’s start with the brand. Why does the brand matter so much? Your brand is more than a color or a logo – it’s a promise to your patients. Do all of your pieces have the same look and feel?

Integrated, personalized branded materials along the entire patient journey improves how practices communicate with their patients.

Look around your office and at every single piece of communication you send to a patient. Your brochures, statements, posters, digital messagings, welcome packets, letters and so on. Do they look like they come from the same practice?

Through extensive research for our customers we learned how to improve patient communications and patient/provider engagement. The result? The Five Phases of the Patient Lifecycle.

Intentional and frequent communication will improve relationships.

Every piece of communication you are sending is part of an ongoing conversation you are having with your patient.
POS Professional Office Services approaches communications as a way to create a bond with patients. Our expertise includes Print. Patient Statement Processing. Digital Messaging. Patient Surveys. And we brand every single piece of communication to reflect our practices’ brands.

As summer passes and we head into fall, are you thinking I have been working as a dentist for a number of years and while I make a good income, I have no idea if I am on track for retirement. How do I take control of my future? The following process can be used to start you on your way.

These documents can be used to look at where you are today and make projections for the future. A Dentist can use one of the following tools to create a financial snapshot: www.mint.com, www.mvelopes.com, or Quicken Personal Finance.

Step 2: Dentist Financial Goal Setting
The next step for dentists is to determine how much extra savings is needed to achieve your retirement and financial independence goals. There are a number of calculators available on the web that can help identify the target savings number. Just be aware that the assumptions used in the calculators can have a big impact on the results. Another way to look at determining a target number is to use 4% “safe” withdrawal rate in retirement.

The 4% rule in my opinion is a pretty good indicator of preparedness for financial independence. Example: A dentist’s $3 million dollar investment portfolio can create roughly $120,000 income stream (before taxes). At this rate, a properly diversified portfolio should last 30 years or longer without running out of money. Besides the retirement goal, other goals need to be included and can increase the amount that is required. Examples of other goals include paying for college for children or grand children, extensive traveling, charitable intentions, vacation properties, etc. A good book to read to begin the process of evaluating what retirement might look like is “The New Retirementality” by Mitch Anthony.

Step 3: Dentists, determine what your “gap” is…
After determining the gap between the expected income in retirement and the projected expenses, a plan to fill in the gaps is necessary.

Step 4: Dentists, maximize your savings!

Dentists have a number of vehicles to help build savings!

Maximize contributions to your 401k plan. Up to $53,000 ($59,000 if over age 50) can be contributed for 2015 as an employee and employer.

Explore the possible use of a cash balance pension plan. This type of plan allows for higher contributions to make up ground for retirement savings if needed. The downside is that it can be very complicated to setup and administer.

Contribute to Roth IRA, Back door Roth IRA, Spousal IRA, or Non-Deductible IRAs as allowed depending on income and rules.

Do you have the systems and procedures in place to manage the practice? Think “E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E Gerber.

Does dental patient retention need to be improved?

Review insurance to improve value for the premium dollars spent and to protect the practice.

Most dentists/employers don’t realize the costs of maintaining their retirement plans. Costs can have a significant impact on account growth. If you don’t know the costs, investigate to determine you have a plan with the features you want and are paying a fair fee(s).

Do you have a place where the people you work with enjoy coming to work? A good working dental team.

Are you utilizing outsourcing as a tool to improve profitability?

Maximize all deductions available to the business.

Consider owning the building your dental practice is in instead of paying rent.

Do you have contingency plans in place should you or a key employee becomes disabled or dies?

Do you have an exit strategy for your business? Buy/sell agreement or plans to bring in a future buyer of your practice?

The bottom line is that you want to maximize the amount you take out of the practice while providing the necessary investment back into the business to achieve your goals.

Step 7: Dentists here are other areas of your plan to consider…

Determine personal cash flow and income needs. Planning cash flow can be very difficult. However, having an accurate picture of expenses now and in retirement can ensure a successful retirement.

Implementing a pay yourself first philosophy can help jump start retirement savings if needed.

Manage debt – Review all personal and business debt. This is often an overlooked aspect for dentists. Appropriate strategies can help increase net worth in the long run. Having consumer debt in retirement can also make it very difficult.

Conduct a tax planning review to verify all available opportunities are being taken advantage of.

Do you have a plan in place to pay for your children’s college education?

Review that appropriate estate planning documents are in place.

There really aren’t any short cuts and you will need to invest time in determining where you are at and then implementing a plan to help achieve your goals in line with your values. If you do so, you can take control.

Proper planning can provide dentists and their families with Peace of Mind. While I work with many types of clients, my dentist clients have found my services especially helpful. Give me a call and I can help make your practice of dentistry a foundation for a great retirement!

Rick Epple, CFP®, is the founder and president of Aurochs Financial Group (AFG). We at AFG work in our client’s (including dentists) best interest to understand their unique issues and create a flexible but clear and direct road map to achieve your goals. This consists of a comprehensive and integrated wealth management plan and corresponding unbiased custom solution. Our plan will continue to guide and protect our clients in the years ahead, regardless of the changing market and economic condition. He is also a NDA member.